Radio Corporation of America

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the multiplier phototube, first made available by the Radio Corporation of America, in the detection of x-rays, 7-rays, and nuclear particles. The device is sensitive to x-rays directly, but better results are obtained if the x-rays are first converted to visible light b r a phosphor. A picture of a Du Mont No. 6291 multiplier phototube is shown in Figure 2-5b. 

Fig. 2-5a. Schematic diagram of No. 931-A multiplier phototube. 0 = photocathode 1-9 = dynodes 10 = anode. (Radio Corporation of America.)...

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Lenard et al. in Germany carried out systematic research on phosphors. They prepared phosphors based on alkaline earth sulfides and selenides, and also on ZnS, and studied their luminescence. In these studies, they laid down the fundamentals of phosphor research.6 Other significant contributions included those of H. W. Leverenz and colleagues at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA)1 laboratories who investigated many phosphors for use in television tubes which led to detailed work being carried out on ZnS-type phosphors.7... 

RCA [Radio Corporation of America] Also called RCA-2 and HPM. A process for cleaning silicon wafers used in electronics. They are washed successively by three solutions. 

RCA [Radio Corporation of America] Also called RC A-2 and HPM. A process for cleaning silicon wafers used in electronics. The wafers are washed successively by three solutions. The first is an alkaline solution of hydrogen peroxide, which oxidizes organic matter. The second is an acid fluoride solution, which removes silica. The third is an acidic solution of hydrogen peroxide, which removes transition metals. The process was developed by RCA Corporation in 1970 and widely used thereafter by the electronics industry. 

Electro-Optics Handbook, Radio Corporation of America, Lancaster, PA, 1974. 

A rival sound system, developed by General Electric and the Radio Corporation of America, put the soundtrack on the film itself, running it in a track next to the images. Since the pictures and their soundtrack were linked on the film, they could never get out of synchronization. This system was also easier to set up. After intense competition and many lawsuits over patent rights, this system beat the sound-on-a-disc system. 

In the early 1940s, Hillier of the Radio Corporation of America conceived the idea of using a focused electron beam for localized x-ray spectroscopic analysis. Several years later, the first practical electron-probe x-ray spectrometer was designed by Castaing at the University of Paris. This microanalyzer proved to be a major breakthrough, since the instrument made possible the nondestructive analysis of micrometersized volumes. 

Zworykin, Vladimir (1889-1982) A Russian who emigrated to the United States after World War 1, Zworykin worked at the Westinghouse laboratories in Pittsburgh. An engineer and inventor who patented a cathode ray tube television transmitting and receiving system in 1923, he later worked in development for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in New Jersey, where his inventions were perfected in time to be used to telecast the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. He also contributed to the development of the electron microscope. 

Radio Corporation of America. 1956. RCA Receiving Tube Manual. Tube Div. Harrison, NJ. 

Zworykin received a scholarship and went to study X-rays at the College de France in Paris in the laboratory of a French theoretical physicist Paul Langevin, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize 25 times between 1910 to 1946. After the Russian Revolution, Zworykin emigrated to the United States in 1919, where he first worked at the Westinghouse laboratory in Pittsburgh on the development of radio tubes and photocells. In that period he defended his thesis on photoelectric cells and earned his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But his main attention was devoted to the development of television and he patented the iconoscope in 1923 - the first of 120 patents. A little bit later he patented the kinescope, too. In 1929 he was appointed the new director of the Electronic Research Laboratory for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in Camden, New Jersey. In the same year, at a convention of radio engineers, Zworykin demonstrated the newly developed television receiver with the kinescope and applied for the first patent in color television. 

The implementation of the black-and-white television broadcasting in the United States in 1939 was followed by color TV in 1953. Then, David Samoff, president of the Radio Corporation of America, had the next big dream to replace the furniture used to house cathode-ray tube TVs with picture frame that could be hanged on walls. He knew that the system development and element development needed an understanding of basic science as well as state-of-the-art technology and hired excellent researchers to work in the Princeton Institute of RCA in order to create the necessary new technologies. 

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